Harper Row
Harper Row Harper Row is a teenage vigilante and tech genius in Gotham City. Allied to Batman and friend to fellow tech expert, Timothy Drake, Harper works as an electrician on Gotham's Power Grid while living with her brother, Cullen Row, in The Narrows district of Gotham City. Name: Harper Row Aliases: Bluebird Species: Human Nationality: American Marital Status: Single Occupation: Vigilante Intel Daughter to Marcus and Miranda Row and elder sister to Cullen Row, Harper Row was a child of notable potential chosen by the human trafficker Mother to serve as the "Perfect Robin" for Batman. To this end, Mother had her assassin, David Cain send his daughter Cassandra Cain, to kill Harper's parents and abduct Harper so that she could be moulded to serve as Batman's perfect sidekick. Although Cassandra managed to kill Harper's mother, Miranda, she found the act of killing traumatising and could not bring herself to kill Harper's father, Marcus; letting him go and returning to her own father having failed her mission. Learning of this plan but unable to stop it, Batman forces Marcus; a unscrupulous man whose only saving grace was his wife, to take responsibility for his role as a parent but otherwise leaves the family alone. However, Marcus was a neglectful parent and had a habit of breaking things and disappearing for stretches of time. During this time Harper would fix the things her father broke, listing her brother and herself among the list. In order to compensate for all the damage her reckless father would cause, Harper soon developed a talent for fixing things. During the Zero Year incident when the Riddler shut off the power throughout all of Gotham, Harper and Cullen were stranded in their apartment while their father decided to take advantage of the situation and go out for a drink. Still a child, Harper pointed out her father's inability to be a decent parent and comforted her brother during the Riddler's takeover, rigging his nightlight to a battery so that he didn't have to sleep in the dark. Eventually Harper applied for emancipation from her father. After achieving this, she moved out, taking her brother Cullen with her, and applied for a job with the city electrical engineer, and got a job doing maintenance on the city's electrical grid. Harper and Cullen moved into The Narrows and broke contact with their father who would later end up imprisoned in Blackgate Penitentiary for theft. After rewiring her landlady's apartment, Harper was paid with a ticket to the Wayne Gala where Bruce Wayne was to announce his revitalisation project that would result in her home being demolished. She was initially hesitant to go, feeling she wouldn't fit in and would look ridiculous, her brother managed to convince her to go, citing his desire for her to court Wayne's adopted son, Tim Drake. After Wayne's presentation, Harper began raiding the dessert tray, planning to leave as soon as her backpack was full. As she did so, she was spotted by Wayne's butler who told her she's making a serious error, by not taking the brownies with her, claiming they're an old family recipe. On her return home, she discovered that the apartment had been broken into, and Cullen had been assaulted, his hair cut into an uneven mess and the word "FAG" shaved into the back of his head. Harper comforted him before getting out the clippers. Cullen claimed that she was wasting her time and if she fixed it, they'll only do it again. She agreed but claimed that's not what she had in mind, before taking the clippers to herself and giving herself a matching haircut. A few days later the same gang of bullies attacks them both as they were on their way home. Harper initially tried to defend them with a taser that she'd super charged, but this soon became useless after more bullies showed up. Fortunately they were both saved by Batman. Both Harper and Cullen were starstruck and began to seek ways to honour or repay Batman for his aid. Though Cullen simply planned to get a bat symbol tattoo, Harper went much further. She began looking up videos of Batman online and soon discovered that he's been sabotaging city security cameras, to avoid any clear footage being found of him. Knowing, due to her job, that he couldn't access the cameras from remote, she became curious as to how he achieved this. She soon discovered Batman's private enhancements to Gotham's electric grid and used it to track her new hero. She also began working on a way to improve the boxes, hoping to repay the hero. Later she saw part of the grid go offline. Assuming something was wrong, she investigates and found herself in a position to assist Batman in capturing Tiger Shark. Batman, still not wishing to have her become involved in his work as it would legitimise "Mother's" scheme, subsequently visited her at work shortly after and told her to not to get herself involved in his activities again. Later, at the time when Batman suffered his first defeat at the hands of the Court of Owls and escaped into Gotham river, Harper spotted him near a hole in the ice and fished him out. Batman briefly flatlined, but she managed to help him with a make-shift defibrillator. Following the death of Robin (Damian Wayne), Batman responded to Harper's continued attempts at helping him by breaking her nose. However, recognising that he was in pain, Harper visits Bruce Wayne at Wayne Tower and shows him plans that she thinks will help Batman. To her surprise, Bruce agrees. That night, Batman tracks Harper and apologises to her. She reminds Batman what he means to the city. When Cluemaster (Arthur Brown) unleashed a scheme against Batman, Harper stows away on board Red Robin (Timothy Drake)'s plane and, over the course of the incident, gains his trust and she uses Red Robin's tech to create her own suit in order to rescue her brother Cullen; Red Robin, Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) and Red Hood (Jason Todd) from the Mad Hatter's nanobot swarm. As part of a purge, Mother would later return from her initial encounter against Batman years before and send David Cain to kill Harper, however, Cain is thwarted by his daughter, Cassandra, who had arrived in Gotham ahead of him in an attempt to worn the Bat Family of Mother's return. During the incident, Mother reveals to Harper her original designs for her and that Cassandra was the one who killed her mother. Following Mother's defeat, Harper assures Batman that she understood his reasons for not telling her about her history, but was prompted to go to college to receive official qualifications for her electrician skills and explore a life outside of the vigilante role. Harper-rowe-e1392239218975.jpg CassStephHarper.png DavidCainPrime6.png 2523607-harper8.jpg 3638199-bluebird.jpg 4162614-bmetrl cv42w.jpg Batman Eternal Vol 1 52 001.jpg Trivia *Harper Row first appeared in Batman #28 (February 2014). *Scott Snyder reportedly based Bluebird on a design created by the daughter of prominent cosplayer Kyrax2 Characters Category:Characters